One of New Zealand’s most controversial citizens has been convicted of money laundering.
William Yan – also known as Bill Liu, Yang Liu and Yong Ming Yan – pleaded guilty to the serious criminal charge in March. Name suppression was lifted at the sentencing hearing in the Auckland District Court this morning.
The 45-year-old millionaire businessman will spend the next five months serving home detention in a luxury apartment in downtown Auckland. …
Yan’s Kiwi citizenship and political connections have been at the centre of years of controversy.
He arrived in New Zealand in 2001. He first made headlines for his links to the previous Labour Government’s decision to give him a New Zealand passport in 2008, despite having multiple identities and an Interpol alert against his name.
After lobbying from Dover Samuels, a Labour MP at the time, former Labour Party Minister Shane Jones overruled the advice of Department of Internal Affairs officials, who said Yan did not meet the good character test for citizenship.
Jones, who is widely rumoured to be preparing to stand for New Zealand First in the upcoming election, said he granted citizenship because he believed Yan would be executed if sent back to China.
Which was bullshit then and proven bullshit now as he has been back to China. Jones knew he was wanted for criminal offences in China and Australia, had multiple identities, yet still gave him citizenship against the strong advice of officials. They then presented it to him in a special ceremony in the Labour Caucus Room.
Thousands of lives are believed to have been saved by a six-hour wait time target for hospital emergency departments, which researchers say has helped halve the number of ED patient deaths.
Findings released today in the New Zealand Medical Journal also reveal that EDs are running more efficiently than before the Government introduced the target in 2009 – patients are now waiting around three hours less to be admitted to a ward.
The findings have been heralded as “extraordinary” by researchers.
This shows the importance of focusing on outcomes, rather than just inputs or spending. Labour go on and on with their claims that health spending has not kept pace with inflation and population (in fact it has) and rail against what they call artificial targets.
But the reality is under Labour only 70% of people in ED got dealt with in under six hours, and now it is 94%. And that change is deemed responsible for saving thousands of lives.
The study analysed nearly 5.8 million ED presentations between 2006 and 2012 and more than two million elective admissions from 18 DHBs.
It calculated a 57 per cent drop in ED patient deaths and 28 per cent less crowding in emergency departments.
Patients were waiting an hour less to be admitted to ED and nearly three hours less to be admitted to a hospital ward.
Great results.
But the most dramatic finding was the significant fall in mortality among ED patients, equating to 700 fewer deaths in 2012 alone, Ardagh said. “This is an extraordinary finding.”
He labelled the reduced waiting times an “important and useful intervention in New Zealand health care”.
That is equivalent to eliminating the road toll twice over.
Dairy owners should stop selling cigarettes “if they feel too threatened” by robbers, says Associate Health Minister Nicky Wagner.
Assuming this is a correct reflection of what was said, that is an appalling view. Should women stop going out for jogs if they feel threatened by rapists? Should banks stop dispensing money if they feel threatened by robbers?
The Government has turned tobacco into a soaring black market item due to repeated excise tax increases (for the right motivation – to reduce smoking rates) and this has resulted in scores of dairy robberies.
And the Minister then turns around and basically says “Tough”. Just stop selling a legal product. Something that would fuel the black market even more.
Many dairies would go bankrupt of they did not sell tobacco, as they would lose so many customers (who often buy other stuff when there). So the Minister seems to be saying to hundreds of small business owners that they should go out of business rather than have an environment in which they can operate safely.
Ms Wagner said cigarette sales might be more appropriate for liquor outlets.
“Maybe we should sell them with alcohol because the security systems in an alcohol convenience store is usually much higher than [in] a dairy,” she said.
John McDonnell faces a Labour revolt to unseat him as shadow chancellor after he said there was “a lot to learn” from Karl Marx’s Das Kapital.
Unless he meant a lot to learn in terms of what not to do, but sadly no chance of that.
Shadow cabinet sources said Jeremy Corbyn’s right-hand man, who has described himself in the past as an “unapologetic Marxist”, had done nothing to help Labour’s cause with a month to go to the general election.
Yep the Shadow Chancellor is an avowed communist and their Leader is basically an advocate of unilateral disarmament for the West.
Mr McDonnell, who announced plans for an income tax rise for anyone earning more than £80,000, also refused to rule out a 60p tax rate on people earning over £100,000 – a policy he has advocated in the past.
Why stop at 60%? What is wrong with 99%?
Priti Patel, the International Trade Secretary, said: “The man Jeremy Corbyn wants to make Chancellor believes that the nonsensical ideas of Karl Marx – punitive taxes, closing down businesses and the removal of private property – should be at the heart of Britain’s economic policy.
Newly-appointed Food Safety Minister David Bennett has raised the possibility of a return to mandatory addition of folic acid to bread in New Zealand.
Bennett last month attended a high-level ministerial forum in Australia, where new research was presented showing the health benefits of Australia’s mandatory folic acid regime, introduced in 2009.
I have no doubt there are health benefits from adding folic acid, but this should be a choice for consumers.
This is not like fluoridation, where water is delivered through one community supply to homes, so it is either fluoridated or not fluoridated.
This is about making it illegal for someone to produce bread without adding folic acid to it.
People who don’t want fluoridated water can still get non fluoridated water. But if you make folic acid mandatory in bread, then no one can get bread without folic acid in it.
It is understood that New Zealand has also had a reduction in neural tube defects under the voluntary regime, but not to the same extent as Australia.
Surely the data for both should be public, so we can judge. But based on this assertion the voluntary scheme is proving beneficial.
Four-year-olds will attend some primary schools under wide-ranging reforms set to pass into law, alarming opposition parties and the primary teachers’ union.
NZEI president Lynda Stuart said the change is a departure from the “special” New Zealand tradition of starting school once a child has blown out the candles on their 5th birthday cake.
“Our view was the status quo should remain,” said Stuart, long-time May Road School principal. “Having those opportunities to socialise and learn in those early childhood settings is really important.”
Labour, the Green Party and New Zealand First have also raised concerns, saying kids could get “lost” in a system they’re not ready for.
This is bullshit or much ado about nothing. It is meaningless opposition for the sake of it.
The change is minor. Rather than have your first day at school the day after your 5th birthday, schools can choose to have kids enter in a cohort at the beginning of each term.
This has obvious advantages. Can be quite terrifying entering school by yourself as the new kid. Entering with a group will help socialisation. Also easier for teachers.
The reference to four year olds is misleading. No kid enters school when they turn four. Some kids might start school at four years ten months. Starting two months earlier is a trivial difference.
Big changes in the way schools are run are set to pass into law. Photo / 123RF
Four-year-olds will attend some primary schools under wide-ranging reforms set to pass into law, alarming opposition parties and the primary teachers’ union.
NZEI president Lynda Stuart said the change is a departure from the “special” New Zealand tradition of starting school once a child has blown out the candles on their 5th birthday cake.
“Our view was the status quo should remain,” said Stuart, long-time May Road School principal. “Having those opportunities to socialise and learn in those early childhood settings is really important.”
Labour, the Green Party and New Zealand First have also raised concerns, saying kids could get “lost” in a system they’re not ready for.
The Education (Update) Amendment bill is down to be read a final time this week and is a key plank of the biggest education reforms since 1989. New Zealand’s current system allows children to start on their 5th birthday, and requires consistent attendance only from the age of 6.
For many schools that will remain the case.
However, for school boards that opt to change to the new cohort option, students will start from the beginning of term closest to their 5th birthday – although parents wouldn’t have to enrol their child until they turn 6, as is presently the case.
The earliest children could start is up to eight weeks before they turn 5.
A very minor change that will give schools flexibility. And that is what you want – schools and parents deciding for themselves what works best.
Kaye said schools will be required to consult with their communities before introducing cohort entry. There is evidence that starting school in a group helped children settle and establish strong relationships.
One of my few memories of that age is starting school and it is unsettling to be the one new kid in the class.
On Sunday drove up to Feilding and back, so got to drive on the Kapiti Expressway for the first time. Was hugely impressed.
First of all it is a beautiful route. With its elevation you get great views of the countryside and NZTA have done a good job of planting trees in various areas. I was surprised by how few houses you see along it.
Secondly was nice to see the many cycleways and walkways alongside it, or passing over it. A great addition to the local community for those who like to cycle and walk.
Finally it was so quick. The time from Paekakariki to Peka Peka is heaps faster. The combination of two lanes the entire way plus no 50 km zones and no traffic lights cuts the time by around a third.
At peak times there will still be congestion until the four laning from the airport to Levin is complete. But it is already making a huge difference for non peak travel.
In a few years people will be amazed there was such opposition to it. The same goes for the Motorway Te Aro extension a few years back. The usual suspects fought against it for over a decade, but who now would want to go back traffic onto the motorway having to go up Vivian Street rather than Kamo Drive, where it flows so much quicker.
Anyway if you’re a Wellingtonian and yet to drive on the Kapiti Expressway, I predict you’re in for a treat.
KiwiSavers are being “harshly” taxed compared to property investors, the authors of a book designed to fire up Kiwis over tax fairness claim.
Deborah Russell, senior tax lecturer at Massey University, and tax consultant Terry Baucher release Tax and Fairness this week, published by BWB Texts.
They claim the more than 2.7 million people in KiwiSaver are being clobbered by tax laws, while the roughly 130,000 landlords who own residential investment properties are much more lightly taxed.
“Inland Revenue estimated the gross residential rental income reported for the year to 31 March 2015 to be $2,008 million. After deducting the $701m of rental losses claimed, the net rental income returned and taxed was $1,307 million.
“Assuming a 33 per cent rate for individuals and trusts, and 28 per cent for companies, this implies a tax take of about $425m, or roughly $33m less than that relating to KiwiSaver funds and superannuation schemes.”
And yet, at the end of March there was just under $39 billion in KiwiSaver, while there were $66.5b of mortgages on residential properties owned by property investors, on properties that were increasing in value rapidly.
I haven’t read the book yet but this extract seems rather to be missing the point. More tax is paid on KiwiSaver income because KiwiSaver produces much more income – despite a lower asset base. Rental returns from property have always been modest at best.
But Russell and Baucher believe most people in KiwiSaver don’t understand how harshly their savings are being taxed as a result of the little-known Foreign Investment Fund (FIF) rules.
They want to dispel that ignorance, and hope their book will get the public interested in tax fairness.
“As both the number of KiwiSaver members and the value of KiwiSaver funds grow, the current tax treatment appears increasingly harsh,” they say.
“If membership is made compulsory, as has been suggested, then under present policy settings a very large and growing number of savers will be overtaxed relative to other assets.”
They quote then opposition MP Lockwood Smith addressing Parliament in 2006, when he opposed the introduction of the FIF rules.
“This legislation will provide an even greater incentive for New Zealanders to bring back their money from overseas and invest in residential property here in New Zealand,” Smith said. “People get the capital gains tax-free and the returns are far better, so why would they not? This is bad legislation because of all those complexities and distortions.”
I don’t know how the FIF regime works but if the authors are saying that the last Labour Government made a blunder by introducing it, well they could well be right. Are they suggesting it be repealed?
Russell and Baucher hope to fire up KiwiSavers to demand the tax system be made fairer, but also to spark a national debate about whether it is finally time for the wealthy to pay tax on their capital gains.
Well of course they should. I support a comprehensive capital gains tax on all productive assets, including the family home, in return for reducing income and company tax to compensate.
I note though that Labour (whom Russell is standing for) have abandoned their policy of having a Capital Gains Tax.
When the public rebels against unfair taxation, governments can change.
Russell and Baucher cite the example of Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, whose 11-year rule came to an end following civil unrest over her plan for a “poll tax” to replace property rates.
Well Labour campaigned on a CGT in 2014 and got 25%. They have dropped the policy in 2017 which suggests they don’t think it is popular.
It is a pity. While Labour’s 2014 CGT was flawed (far too many exemptions, and no compensating reduction in other taxes) it was a step in the right direction.
Labour may have gender representation right in its list, but it has another, more serious problem. Five per cent (ie, one person) of its top 20 list places is occupied by Maori, who make up 15 per cent of the population.
This is something Labour needs to address if it wants to be seen to truly reflect our country and its diversity.
Little is showing a stark ignorance of MMP. The Labour caucus will be determined by how many seats they win and then topped up with List MPs.
Labour have eight Maori MPs in seats they are likely to win.
They also have two (not one) Maori MPs ranked in the top 20 and three in the top 21.
But with MMP what is important is the effective List – removing those likely to win seats. So actually three of the top eight effective List positions are Maori.
This combined means Labour is likely to have 11 Maori MPs out of a caucus of 35 (assumed 29% party vote).
So rather than be under-represented by Maori, Labour in fact is likely to have a caucus that is 31% Maori – twice their share of the population.
Yet Paul Little in his ignorance clams this is not enough.
Panel chair Lyn Stevens QC said the outbreak “shook public confidence” in this fundamental service of providing safe drinking water and it raised “serious questions” about the safety and security of New Zealand’s drinking water.
The district and regional councils did not directly cause the outbreak, but their “dysfunctional relationship” and their lack of co-operation resulted in a number of missed opportunities that may have prevented it from occurring.
The regional council failed to meet its responsibility to act as the guardian of the aquifers under the Heretaunga Plains, he said.
This is the same regional council that tried to blame it all on the district council and tried to prosecute them, at huge cost to the taxpayer.
The district council “failed to embrace or implement the high standard of care required of a public drinking-water supplier”, particularly in light of a similar outbreak in the district in 1998, from which it appeared to have learned nothing.
The council’s mid-level managers especially failed, Stevens said. They delegated tasks but did not adequately supervise or ensure implementation of requirements. This led to unacceptable delays in developing the council’s water safety plan which would have been “fundamental in addressing the risks of the outbreak”.
Drinking Water Assessors were also at fault, with Stevens finding they were “too hands off” in applying the drinking water standards.
They should have been stricter in requiring the district council to comply with responsibilities with its water safety plan, he said.
“They failed to address the [council] sufficiently about the lack of risk assessment and the link between the bores and the nearby pond.”
The regional council should never have launched the prosecution of the district council, which it later withdrew, Stevens said.
The prosecution was “bound to have failed” and $450,000 the regional council spent on investigating the vase “could have been more wisely spent on investigating the status of the aquifer”.
It seems to me this is exactly why amalgamation of local councils made sense – no turf wars and patch protection.
Gerry Morris, a former coal-mining journalist and author, writes:
The dramatic release of 13 hours of underground footage by the police relating to the Pike River tragedy is more sad raking of the tragedy’s embers, instigated by a small minority of the 29 families.
The video being the same one shown to them six years ago.
It remains a sad fact that mining all over the world, in Australia, Europe, South Africa, the USA and China have underground mines as eternal tombs for victims of mine disasters. Strongman Number One mine near Greymouth is a tomb for two victims of the 1967 disaster that killed 19.
No-one wants to leave the dead down a mine, but even more no-one wants to increase the number of people dead.
Some of the Pike victims’ families commissioned an experts’ report to support their case for re-entry and have lobbied hard to get this report accepted.
Prepared by United Kingdom coalmining experts, Dr David Creedy and Robert Stevenson, the report A method for safe reentry of Pike River Mine Drift, has been used to make the case for re-entry into the 2.3km stone access tunnel to the mine, known as the Drift.
The five-page UK report contrasts with the extensive bevy of reports commissioned by Pike’s owner Solid Energy, using New Zealand underground mining experts, and published in their hundreds of pages on their website.
The UK report is not a detailed plan for safe entry. It is a high level proposal for what might be possible. It sits in contrast to the hundreds of pages of reports by mining experts on the dangers.
Solid Energy’s work using extensive local knowledge, is perceived to be too conservative compared with the UK opinion. History repeats in a sense as on the day after the first explosion at Pike, on November 20, 2010, seven of the 13 New Zealand certificated underground mine managers were there ready to assist only to be sidelined by the government agencies.
And that probably saved their lives as the mine exploded again.
Both sides partially agree, based on footage obtained by robots and borehole cameras, that structurally, the drift could be entered as it is likely to be in good condition for the first 2km, given the installed level of structural supports and roof bolts. Even after four explosions, it is likely to be intact.
Four explosions!
The mine has been on fire at various stages and any form of re-ignition arising from re-entry activity into the drift, can not be dismissed. The UK experts say the workings have been gas-filled, therefore oxygen free for four years, which removes spontaneous combustion concerns, a view not shared by New Zealand experts.
In any analysis of the risk of re-entry at Pike, history reminds us of the many rescue workers killed attempting recovery of coalmine disaster victims. In a Pike-sized mine at Crandall Canyon in Utah in 2007, six miners were killed in the mine and 10 days later, three rescue workers were killed attempting recovery. The six miners remain entombed.
Yet Little and Peters want to pass a law forcing Solid Energy to send people down the mine, no matter how dangerous.
The re-entry of the drift at Pike is recognised in mining circles globally, as not straightforward. The UK experts’ report commissioned by some of the Pike families, is full of unproven, hopeful assumptions.
They are Christchurch’s moon shot children, travelling thousands of extra kilometres every week to avoid their local high school.
Students travel a total of 171,000 kilometres a day getting to Christchurch schools, but would save 71,000km a day if they went to their nearest school, a new study has found.
The 71,000km daily saving, which is four times the distance from Christchurch to London, comes to about 355,000km of extra travel a week – close to the 384,000km distance to the moon from Earth.
With around 20,000 students the finding is effectively that the average student travels an extra 2 km (each way) a day to get to their desired school. Wow wee.
They then multiply that up to try and sound impressive.
Here’s something equally silly.
Two million New Zealanders travel an (say) average 20 kms a day to get to their desired workplace, rather than the one closest to them.
That is 200 million kms travelled a week or the distance from the Sun to Mars.
Over a year that is equal to three trips to Pluto. All because people choose to work not at their closest business.
Devonport said parents needed more information to make better decisions about where to send their child.
Don’t you love the assumption. Parents are making bad decisions because they are choosing not to send their kids to the nearest school. How dare they.
The parents of school age kids I know do not make school decisions lightly. They regard it as one of the most crucial decisions for their children’s future. They spend a lot of time visiting schools, talking to other parents, reading ERO reports etc. But it seems they need to make better decisions according to this research because some parents decide not to attend the nearest school.
“The data used in this research was only available on request from NZQA. As a result, parents may be relying on potentially unverified and anecdotal information to form a perception of school quality when choosing a school for their child,” he wrote in the report.
How dare parents make decisions based on anecdotal evidence such as talking to other parents.
“If parents exercise choice when sending their child to school in the absence of easily understandable statistical information, they could potentially rely on stereotypes, prejudices, or misinformation to make their decision.”
“These results provide some evidence to the conclusion reached in previous research that parents avoid their closest school if there are perceived quality issues with it.”
Devonport also calculated which school rolls would grow if pupils attended their nearest school, effectively highlighting which schools were being bypassed by parents.
Linwood College, Mairehau High School and Hornby High School would all see their rolls swell by more than 200 per cent.
The answer is not to force people to attend schools they don’t want to.
Greenpeace has been accused of “lying for financial gain” as it fights seismic surveying off the New Zealand coast.
Seismic surveying involves the shooting of compressed air to generate an underground map but it is a process protested against by Greenpeace, which fears the sounds are a danger to marine mammals. …
But Victoria University geophysics and tectonics professor Rupert Sutherland, who has studied the science and worked on seismic surveys, said Greenpeace’s campaign was “essentially lying for financial gain”.
He knew of no evidence that conclusively showed there was a single incident of a whale or dolphin being directly injured by seismic reflection vessels.
For each survey, hundreds of thousands of dollars was spent on preventing and recording direct injury, something he said didn’t happen. That money would be better spent looking into whether there was any long-term harm to marine mammals – which had been under researched, he said.
Climate change researchers used seismic surveying and drilling to collect sediment cores to look at climate records, he said.
“The current strategy of Greenpeace makes it expensive or impossible to conduct legitimate research in the ocean, including climate change research.”
And Greenpeace’s response:
Greenpeace climate campaigner Kate Simcock rejected the suggestion Greenpeace was lying and said its campaigns were based on well documented scientific evidence.
Greenpeace’s campaign did not make claims of direct impact to marine mammals, and the effects were chronic rather than immediate, she said.
“Seismic surveys have been shown to disrupt essential activities for whales, including foraging and reproduction.
“There could also be an increased risk of calves being separated from mothers… Exposure to repeated loud blasts from a seismic survey can mask the sounds they rely on and lead to stress, disorientation, changes in foraging and nursing behaviours, and, in extreme cases, direct physical damage.”
Note the weasel words of could be and can. That means they have no evidence.
GNS marine geophysicist Stuart Henrys, who was on the committee that wrote the 2012 Department of Conservation code regulating noise from seismic reflection vessels, said Greenpeace should have an open mind about noise in the ocean.
“Seismic reflection is a tool that’s used by the industry. It’s well regulated, and there’s research to underpin that regulation.
“Ship noise is continuous and at a much higher volume than seismic reflection vessels, and the accumulated sound of a busy shipping lane is far greater than seismic ship noise,” he said.
So maybe Greenpeace should call for all ships to be banned!
President Trump fired FBI Director James B. Comey on Tuesday, at the recommendation of senior Justice Department officials who said he had treated Hillary Clinton unfairly and in doing so damaged the credibility of the FBI and the Justice Department.
The startling development comes as Comey was leading a counterintelligence investigation to determine whether associates of Trump may have coordinated with Russia to interfere with the U.S. presidential election last year. It wasn’t immediately clear how Comey’s ouster will affect the Russia probe, but Democrats said they were concerned that his ouster could derail the investigation.
This is surreal. Some Democrats blamed Comey for losing Clinton the election. And Trump has sacked on the grounds he was unfair to Clinton. The same Trump who said Comey was too soft on her, and said he wanted her jailed.
So is this what it seems, or was this an excuse to get Comey out of the way for reasons related to the Russia probe?
The President has the power and right to fire the FBI Director and appoint them. Who he appoints as the new Director will be critical.
A total of 303 families have been approved for the government-sponsored Relocation from Auckland Assistance grant.
And only five of those families changed their minds and returned to New Zealand’s most populated and busiest city.
So 98% have settled elsewhere.
Beneficiaries Paul and Patricia Robinson-Hill were homeless for two years living with friends and family in Mangere, and wanted a roof over their heads.
The Robinson-Hill’s, with their two school age sons, Rune, 10, and Hunter, 14, had never been to New Plymouth.
“We didn’t know anyone here, it was like going to another country,” Patricia said.
The family applied for the grant and were offered a three bedroom state house in Marfell, a suburb overlooking Port Taranaki.
“It was the first house we were offered, we could have said ‘No’ but it’s not much fun being homeless so we didn’t think twice,” she said.
The $5000 relocation assistance grant was used to pay for removal expenses, three nights temporary motel accommodation and daily expenses while the weekly rent of $116 is automatically taken out of the couple’s benefit.
The Labour Party remains opposed to charter schools and supporters like Willie Jackson don’t have the ability to “change party policy”.
For five years Labour has been against charter schools, introduced by the National government under a confidence and supply agreement with the ACT party.
Jackson, who announced he was running for the Labour Party in February, is heavily involved with Te Kura Maori o Waatea, a charter school based at Nga Whare Waatea Marae in South Auckland.
Jackson’s organisation, The Manukau Urban Maori Authority, sponsored the school that opened in 2015.
On TVNZ’s Q+A on Sunday Jackson said it would be merely the “name” Labour would “get rid of”.
“…they’ll get rid of the concept but the principle of turning kids’ lives around is something that…all of Labour believe in.
“So call the school whatever you like,” Jackson said.
So Willie Jackson is saying they will just be renamed, while Little says they may or may not close and Hipkins says they must close or integrate.
On Tuesday Little said state schools have to meet minimum expectations of having trained registered teachers and teaching the national curriculum.
“If (a charter school) meets those conditions then we’ll have a look at what happens with that particular school but we’re not a party of charter schools,” he said.
This is a red herring. The key thing about charter schools is they have full funding flexibility. Is Little saying he’ll allow charter schools to continue with full funding flexibility?
During cross-examination, Slater’s lawyer Brian Henry asked Craig to read parts of a 12-page letter he wrote to MacGregor just six weeks after employing her as his press secretary.
After just six weeks? It is bad form to hit on the staff until after the 90 day period is over.
One passage concerned questions Craig said he’d been asked by people who were keeping tabs on him.
“Questions were: Colin, are you having an affair? Do you think your relationship with you PA (ie you) is special? Have you kissed her?”
Regarding the third question, Craig wrote, “And again obviously the answer to the last question was no, not that I wouldn’t want to, a lot, but that is a boundary.”
I might be old fashioned but writing to your staff telling them how you want to kiss them could be a bad idea.
Henry also questioned Craig about a part of his letter where he apologised for looking down her top.
“I owe you an apology … I was caught off-guard. My eyes went where they shouldn’t have gone.”
Likewise writing to your press secretary and admitting you stare down her top could also be seen as a bad idea.
“Physically, I do desire you,” Craig said in a letter penned in February 2012. “There are some times I just want to kiss you and.. well.. go further.”
“I have resisted going down the kissing track and shall continue to do so. I have left the door open for you to say if you need that. But I expect it would be infrequent and of course there are still boundaries.”
So in this letter it is an offer of infrequent kissing if she needs it.
Whanganui MP Chester Borrows, cleared of a driving charge laid by police, says he is frustrated it went all the way to court.
After a day-and-a-half trial in Whanganui District Court, Judge Stephanie Edwards this afternoon found the politician not guilty of careless driving causing injury after two protesters were hit by his car.
Police charged Borrows, 59, after two women suffered minor injuries when they were among anti-Trans Pacific Partnership protesters blocking his car outside a Whanganui motel in March last year.
I would have been outraged with any other verdict. It was ridiculous it went to court. The complaint was obviously wholly politically motivated and if anyone should have been charged it was those blocking the car from leaving. There is no right to block a road. If Borrows had been found guilty it would have sent a green light to every activist out there to jump up and down and in front of MPs cars.
What the hell the Police thought they were doing by doing a criminal prosecution I do not know. Even if they thought Borrows was in the wrong (something many would dispute) you’d expect a caution at best.
The Herald on Sunday has found 128 tobacco-related hits on petrol stations, liquor stores and dairies since the beginning of last year. These were from media reports as police do not keep a record.
The actual number is likely to be higher. …
The increasing tax level on tobacco makes it more and more valuable for robberies. It is probably the most valuable thing you can steal from a dairy.
Most people now use EFTPOS to pay for items so I suspect the average dairy has say $200 cash only.
A box of 10 cigarette packets will soon have a retail value of $300. Is there anything else in a dairy that is worth $300 let alone is so light?
A robber with a backpack can probably easily for 10 boxes in, and do it in two minutes. So $3,000 of value is why tobacco is now becoming a black market item robbed to order.
